Keys to Patriots 41-14 loss: The Good, The Bad, and They Ughly

The Good: WR Brandon LaFell, 6 catches 119 Yards and 1 Touchdown.

            While there were not many positive things about the Patriots Monday night loss, one positive was wide receiver Brandon LaFell. LaFell had no targets from Brady in the first two games of the season and then only four catches for 45 yards in the third game. LaFell seemed like another botched wide receiver signing in the same column as Danny Amendola and Chad Ochocinco. Then all of a sudden between Brady and Garopollo, LaFell gets 10 targets for six catches, along with a great 44-yard touchdown (play is shown here). Brady and LaFell seemed as if they were finally on the same page.  With the Bills, Jets, and Bears coming up after a hard Cincy matchup, look for more out of LaFell within the coming weeks.

The Bad: Tom Brady being benched for the fourth quarter and Jimmy Garopollo outplays him.

            Tom Brady was awful last night and it was not because of the offensive line. He was overthrowing targets, forcing passes and looked scared to be outside of the pocket. His own awful play led to his benching after a Kansas City interception returned for a touchdown. What makes it worse is that backup quarterback Jimmy Garopollo entered the game and outplayed Brady. Three time Super Bowl champion, two time Super Bowl MVP, along with two time league MVP was outplayed by a rookie out of Eastern Illinois. Garopollo came in and had an opening drive touchdown to Rob Gronkowski, going six for seven on the night for 70 yards and a touchdown. Although Brady will not be replaced, it is never good when your backup out performs your franchise quarterback and future hall of famer.

The Ugly: The Patriots defense giving up 207 rushing yards, 443 total yards, and 41 points.

            The Patriots have seven first round picks playing on the defensive side of the ball and they still looked atrocious. They let running back Jamaal Charles do whatever he wanted. Even backup Knile Davis got in on the fun with 107 yards on 16 carries. The Patriots defense had no way of stopping the run last night and it doesn’t look any better going into the future. They ranked dead last against the run last year and rank 23^rd this year through four games. And they still have to face the likes of Giovani Bernard, CJ Spiller, Matt Forte and Eddie Lacy. If the Patriots want to improve upon last night’s performance and their 2-2 record, it starts with defending the run game.

The Future of Washington: Kirk Cousins

On Sunday, the Washington Redskins were not supposed to have any chance at winning. Not without their franchise quarterback.

In fact, if it were not for poor special team’s play that led to a kick returned for a touchdown, along with a missed 33-yard field goal in the fourth quarter, the Redskins would have won the game.

The fact that the Redskins lost due to special teams indicates that quarterback Kirk Cousins is the team’s future.

In his spot start for Robert Griffin III, Cousins had 427 passing yards along with three touchdowns and an 81-yard touchdown pass to receiver DeSean Jackson. The previous week Cousins came in after Griffin III went down to injury. He had 250 passing yards and two touchdowns en route to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 41-10.

This kid needs to be the future.

Part of his success could be due to new head coach Jay Gruden. Gruden runs the West Coast offense, which fits Cousins’s play style perfectly. He looks more comfortable than Griffin III does taking snaps. Cousins also has a rocket for an arm and great football instincts. He isn’t some do-good backup like Matt Cassel was when Tom Brady went down during the 2008 season.

While Cousins has played, the Redskins have scored 75 total points. Yes, 75 points in two games. Previously the Redskins had only scored 110 points in their last eight games, all while Griffin III started. Cousins has gone three-and-out only twice this season as well.

He also has uncanny speed when releasing the ball. The guy never waits, leading to zero sacks the entire game, the second time since the start of the 2013 season.

Cousins hasn’t been perfect, seeing he has only 284 career passing attempts in a limited amount of games, but he shows signs of a soon-to-be great quarterback. He has exceptional decision-making skills. He rarely tries to jam passes to receivers. It should also be noted that Cousins began the game 12 for 13 when passing and then went 18 for 35 after that stretch. Cousins does have some things he needs to work on.

But with all that said, Cousins has more positives than Robert Griffin III. As long as Cousins continues to progress, there is no reason why he can’t take over the starting role and the franchise. The only thing in his way is three first round picks and a second.

Guest Writer: Keys to Patriots Loss; Preview for Week Two

This article was written by guest writer Abdul Rauf, a sophomore at Assumption College and New England Patriots Fan. This article was written solely for the purpose of lewisandsports.blogspot.com

By Abdul Rauf

What happened Sunday? A common question amongst Patriots fans. The Patriots 33-20 loss to the Dolphins was a game of two halves. The first was about a stout defense and an efficient offense. The second half was about an offense that could not even muster up 100 yards and a defense that allowed 23 unanswered points. The following is my breakdown of what went right and wrong for the Pats on Sunday.

Quarterback- Despite Tom Brady leading the Patriots to 20 first-half points and a 10 point lead, he never looked comfortable. Brady had too many underthrows, overthrows and even a few lobs that, lucky enough, were not intercepted. For me, there were two big problems.

One: Brady kept trying to jam passes to Tight End Rob Gronkowski and Wide Receiver Julian Edelman. This was highlighted by Brady clearly overthrowing Edelman, and then proceeding to show his frustration. On an earlier play, Brady proceeded to throw at Gronkowski’s feet in double coverage, but to no avail. The frustration showed in the second half when Brady had several key chances, but ultimately could not put together a meaningful drive. Although the receivers did a valiant job, “Tom Terrific” could not find an open receiver. When he locked onto a receiver, Miami’s defense knew and took advantage.

Two: Body language. We have all seen Brady frustrated. I think he does this out of his frustration knowing he can do better. On Sunday, Brady did not look frustrated, he looked defeated. This would of course be fine in the playoffs, but not week one against Miami (not exactly the Broncos there). These are all areas that Brady needs to fix and although I will always believe in him, I cannot say he believes in himself. Can someone say declining? Whoops.

Offensive Line- Lets cut to the chase, they were bad. The amount of times Brady got rushed by Miami’s defense would kill any quarterback. I do not understand why they traded Logan Mankins and then kept Marcus Cannon not starting, but that is a discussion for another day. Whoever makes these decisions has to do a better job than this. The second half was brutal to watch Brady try to get a drive together, all while the o-line did not do him any favors. The o-line has to step up, or at least try to do their jobs. While coach Belichick will blame it on executions, he should be given some of the blame for the offensive line.

Defensive Line- I worry the most about the defensive line. The d-line was getting beat regularly, and not because they were blowing assignments. The Dolphins faced almost no pressure in the second while Miami quarterback Ryan Tannehill had more than enough time to execute his passes. As sports radio host Mike Felger said on his show, it is not like they did anything wrong, they just did not play well enough. We shall truly see what the defense is made of against the Vikings’ receiver Cordarrelle Patterson and running game. Once again, I do not understand the coaching assignments. Why is Chandler Jones two-gapping? Vince Wilfork by himself? My hope this was only an assignment problem and not a problem of personal ability. If not, the Pats could be in trouble.

Coaching- Where do I even begin? I do not understand any of the coaching decisions on Sunday. What is going on with the offensive line rotation? Why is there so much passing and abandonment of the run? What happened to the aggressive defense? Why all the zone play? It does not even stop there. It seemed as in the first half the defense had the ability do what it wanted, but then had to play so conservative in the second half? I was hoping for a smash-mouth Patriots defense, but what I received was a confused ball of mess. The coaching needs to get back to the basics and let everybody play aggressive and smart. No more unnecessary complex plays. Josh McDaniels said he did not his offense throwing as much, so why did he not do anything about during the game? The Patriots certainly had enough drives to attack with a balanced approach. The coaching looked as though they were adapting with the times, but in the second half they looked like more the Patriots defense of the past.

Looking Towards Next Week- I expect the Patriots to get much better. Despite the poor play on defense and turnovers, the receivers made good plays, especially receiver Kenbrell Thompkins. Brady needs to take more chances in order to succeed. There were too many short passes and predictable offensive situations. The receivers need to continue to do what they do best. The o-line needs to get back to the basics and the defense needs to put on pressure. Both performances on Sunday were unacceptable. The Vikings will test the Patriots in both offensive versatility and with a stout defense. Hopefully the Patriots are able to get firing on all cylinders and win decisively on this Sunday.

Any disagreements? Comments feel free to comment below or contact me at abdul.rauf@assumption.edu